By the time you read this, I will have retired from the library. However, nothing can stop me from recommending good books – especially stories of murderous suspense. These books are page-turners up to the very last sentence.


BELLES by Lacey N. Dunham takes place in 1951 at an exclusive women’s college in Virginia, where etiquette and secrets are in abundance. Deena’s grandmother has arranged for her education at Bellerton at the cost of her true identity which would reveal her working-class origins. Deena knows that doors will open for her if she has the right connections with her well-to-do classmates. She soon becomes one of the “Belles,” along with Ada May, leader of the clique, and four others who all climb to the top of the social ladder. Deena’s social standing is a facade that begins showing cracks and is finally found out. Her fate is revealed in a shocking twist brought on by a 50-year class reunion at Bellerton. Beware the consequences of those repressed teenage years.


GUESS AGAIN by Charlie Donlea is aptly named, because this thriller has readers closing in on the villain before the author throws suspicion on someone else. Ethan Hall, a former detective, has become an emergency room doctor to forget about the crimes he’s worked on – especially the disappearance of 17 year-old Callie Jones ten years earlier.  The case reappears when her father becomes the governor and reopens the investigation. This fast paced story involves a diabolical killer who enjoys the detailed planning required for his next kill. The action is set in Wisconsin, making it more relatable to local readers who are familiar with small towns and wooded terrain.


MURDERLAND: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser (364.1523 FR) is written as narrative nonfiction about why the Pacific Northwest had more than its fair share of serial murders in the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s. Fraser draws a correlation between heavy metal particulates (especially lead, arsenic, and mercury) found near smelting plants and the number of murders in that area. After World War II, large industries were unregulated as they freely polluted the water, the air, and farming fields in order to make big profits while providing local jobs. As it turns out, there are clusters of murders in the vicinity of each smelter. Just when you thought you knew everything about serial killers such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, the Green River Killer, and the Hillside Strangler, the author’s fifty pages of research notes add personal information and suspense to their stories.



TO ALL THOSE I’VE KILLED BEFORE by J.L. Hyde is a twisted tale of vigilante justice carried out by forty-one year old Rachel Marless who just found out she will die of cancer in the next few months. She moves in with her devoted sister to be near the niece she adores – a freshman in college who vows to spend every Tuesday afternoon with her aunt. Rachel tells Linnea stories about friends repeatedly abused by thoughtless men who, incidentally, all came to bad endings. Linnea never questions her aunt’s connections to these women or her innocence, but finally puts pieces of the puzzle together. Is Aunt Rachel confessing her involvement in these deaths? Would you?



WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy is set on an island near Antarctica where a seed bank has been established to secure human survival in the dystopian future. When a shipwrecked woman washes up on shore, the caretaker, Dominic Salt, and his three children nurse her back to health. A ship will pick them up in six weeks, along with the biologically diverse seeds they’ve been protecting for the past eight years. Trust between the Salt family and Rowan is built and broken as ulterior motives emerge in the course of daily life. The book is written in chapters of personal perspective from everyone on the island. Secrets and regrets abound in this story that makes readers evaluate their own resolve in physically and emotionally extreme situations.